If two EQUAL forces are acting upon one object at the same time, will the object do nothing?

Question

I thought this was true, but heard differently on TV.

Answer 1

If the forces are equal and opposite, then the object will stay in place. (It might be crushed, but it won't move somewhere else.) If the forces are equal but not opposite, then the object will move in the direction that's the resultant of the vactor forces acting on it.

Answer 2

If two equal forces act upon an object at the same thime, many things can happen

Example if > equals a force pushing right and O equals an object, then two >> equals twice the force on O; the extra > is actually helping the first>
however if one > equals force pushing right on an object (O) and < equals the same ammount of force pushing left on the object then the object does nothing. there are many more ways that 2 equal forses can affect an object. For example a force going right and an other going up, or down and left. they do not contrast each other but do affect each other when applied on an object.

Answer 3

Your question is a loaded one. Forces have both magnitude and direction. Thus, two forces can have equal magnitude (e.g., ten pounds each), but be pointed in a variety of directions. In the two extremes, two forces can be 100% constructive in that they both point in the same direction while acting on the same body; or they can be 100% canceling in that they point directly at each other acting on the same body.

One of Newton's laws says that a body will continue at rest or traveling in a straight line without acceleration until a "net" force changes that state. This results from f = ma; where f is the vector sum of all forces acting on a mass m to give that mass an acceleration a. Thus, if f = 0 = ma; you can see that there will be no acceleration on that body (a = 0).

If the "object" is moving, it will continue to move in a straight line without accelerating. If the object is at rest, it will stay at rest without accelerating. So, to answer your question, the object will "do nothing," stay at rest if and only if it was at rest to start with when the net forces summed to zero. If it was already moving when the net forces went to zero, it will do something...continue moving but without acceleration.

Answer 4

If the forces are equal and opposite and act along the same line the object will deform somewhat, but will not accelerate.

If the forces are equal and opposite but their lines of action are displaced from one another then the object will experience an angular acceleration - it will start to spin. These forces comprise a torque.

Answer 5

no, the object is being pulled by gravity, so it's actually still moving even if two equal forces are acting upon it on either side. For example, dig a hole in the ground and put the object (with two equal forces acting on it) into the hole, so it's still moving. but if you do this in a vacuum....i guess it would work.

Answer 6

Depends on the object...if I push against a sponge in one direction and you push against it with an equal and opposite force...our combined forces will squash the sponge.
Do the same with a rock and nothing happens.

Answer 7

Equal and opposite forces actually, the object will not move

Answer 8

Only if the forces are acting on the object in exactly opposite vectors. Then they will cancel each other out.

If they are not acting in exactly opposite vectors, then some combination of their momentums will cause the object to move (if friction can be overcome).

Answer 9

yes, if the forces are comming from opposite directions. for example if you push a box with a force of 10 newtons and some one on the other side of the box is pushing with an equal force of 10 newtons then the box won't move.

Answer 10

well, the body will starrt experiencing stress forces and since these two EQUAL forced are coming from two opposite sides but yet in one plane, the body might be inclined to deform under strain into another shape making use of the other 2 planes it can "move" in to relieve the stress